I am trying to run some Perl/CGI script which i have downloaded on my web server as a learning exercise, but when I try to post a form to the specific .pl script, apache records this error in its error log:

I know this is probably NOT the right forum to be asking this, but any help would be appreciated (any ideas on where WOULD be a good place to go for apache help would also be appreciated - apart from the apache readme, which I've been over and over and can't seem to get any perl/CGI's working no matter where they are located under the apache hierarechy...)

The default installation of apache on any linux system doesn't support cgi of any sort until you make a configuration change in apache's configuration file(s).

Depending on you distrobution it may differ. What you are looking for will be in either httpd.conf or srm.conf

look for a line that looks like this <BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Arial,Helvetica,sans serif">code:</font><HR>

#AddHandler cgi-script .cgi #AddHandler cgi-script .pl </pre><HR></BLOCKQUOTE> remove the # from in front of this(ese), then save the file and restart apache.

you will need to specify the handler file extension if you plan to use any extension besides .cgi or .pl as they are defined above

You will run into other security issues as well about what directories can run cgi program (perl or otherwise)

the default configuration for apache puts web documents in a directory "htdocs" and cgi programs in "cgi-bin" and cgi programs will only be executed if they are placed in "cgi-bin" or a subdirectory of that or you alter the configuration files again.

More information on using apache as well as other server software under linux can be found at Server Resources.com